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Monday, April 16, 2012

Dotty for You Blog Hop!

Welcome to our CTMH Dotty For You Blog Hop! We will be featuring CTMH's National Scrapbooking Month Special, which is this adorable Dotty For You Paper Packet with 24 sheets of fantastically trendy prints for just $5!! If you have come here from TRACI'S BLOG, you are on the right path!

This month we have almost 40 Close To My Heart Consultants sharing their creations using this groovy Dotty For You paper and other great CTMH products on their blogs. The blog hop is a great big circle, so you can start here and work your way all around.If you get lost along the way, you’ll find the complete list of participating consultants here. This is simple to do - just click on the link at the end of the post on each blog to move to the next one! Here we go!

When I saw that cloud print in the packet I knew just what I wanted to do with it. I saw an adorable Sunshine and Happiness Layout on the Bella Blvd. Blog by Katherine McElveen. I loved the idea of it, but it was a one pager, with one photo...and she lives somewhere sunny and that's not quite how things roll up here in Oregon. So when we got a couple of mostly dry, sort of sunny days this month (after having kicked off the month with snowman building on our back deck), I knew it was time to bust out of the house and hit the road with my trio of rapscallions for some Oregon adventure!

I knew I couldn't have my version be quite as sunny, since, as you can see in the photos, our sunny days right now incorporate quite a bit of grey sky still. So I handcut a cloud template in a similar shape to the clouds from the Dotty papers and used that to sponge in Grey Wool clouds over the top of the (now expanded by me) two page layout. And topped that with some pearlescent glimmer mist...

I hand cut the circles, clouds, and labels/tags from the various Dotty papers,popping some up with 3-D foam tape and detailing some with a fine tipped silver gel pen. Really, the images on the label page all look stamped and distressed already - so cool!

I stitched on my sun rays by hand using grey thread, and added an older retired Badge button I'd been hoarding until I found just the right project - Hello, Mr. Sun! I ringed my circle sun with bitty brads too.

On Page 2 I continued the Sky/Ground theme from Page 1, floating more hand cut clouds across the top and circle bits and labels across the bottom. I cut 1/4" strips for the journaling across the top. I used to do 1/2" strips for this kind of journaling, but I like how much cleaner the 1/4" strips look...plus you can write a lot more in the same space...and you might have noticed that I tend to write a lot, lol.

Finally, I added some bling! I gave each cloud a "silver lining" by patting on Silver Glitter Glitz with my finger just along the bottom of each cloud. I tucked Bitty and Colored Sparkles onto the clusters along the bottom and on each butterfly body. And I added a Pin Clip to the bottom of Page 1 to hold the year since we usually go every year...but usually in the drizzly rain! Perhaps you can see the shine of the "silver lining" down in the close up?

Now "Hop" on over to CAROL'S BLOG to see her beautiful Dotty art work! Be sure to visit all the Consultants at their Blogs to get some great crafting ideas and other fun ideas! Remember, this Dotty For You paper packet is only available through National Scrapbooking Month WHILE SUPPLIES LAST! Contact your CTMH Consultant (or click here) to see how you go Dotty over these fabulous papers before they sell out!

One more tip - To create these fab photo collages that fill up the bottom of my Layouts I just popped into Picasa (a free program you can download from the web) and chose the folder that held all my pics from our little foray to the Tulip Festival.Then I chose Create>Picture Collage and dumped half onto each side, fitting 31 photos onto a two page LO! My favorite part (besides stuffing a billion photos onto my page in one fell swoop!) was the "Shuffle Pictures" Button - so much fun!

Here are some more projects I have made using this 100% Awesome Dotty For You paper packet (and I've got lots more a-comin' this week!):

This looks fabulous Wendy! I LOVE how you've interpreted the grey clouds for your background as I am familiar with this concept here in Vancouver,BC too!! I love that you went out and had a photo-shoot road trip, I'm sure your kids will remember this fun day for some time :)

Such an amazing layout out. I love all of the fun elements to it and the all of the pictures you incorporated into it! I am a new follower of your blog and am looking forward to more of your creations! I would like to invite you to check out my blog and follow me too!

Great blog!!! I just clicked to follow you and I'm looking forward to seeing what else you will share. As a new blogger, I would really appreciate it if you check out my blog and follow me, too! http://piece-ofheart.blogspot.ca/

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About Me

Hi! I'm a real foodie mom to 3 little boys with a passion for all things stamping and scrapbooking! Usually fueled by too much Earl Gray and dark chocolate, paper crafting gives me a vacation from my everyday life while creating beautiful keepsakes to preserve memories of our family and friends. Married for 17 years to my best friend, who supports my addiction to all things paper with generous amounts of time and praise for completed projects!